


oblivion

by rocketshiptospace



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Accidental Dating, Accidental Kissing, If Only They Would Just Talk To Each Other, M/M, horrible communication basically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2019-02-23 05:30:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13183338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rocketshiptospace/pseuds/rocketshiptospace
Summary: “So, how long have you and Shane been dating?” Jen asks.If Ryan had already taken a sip of his coffee, he would’ve done a spit take right now. Instead, he just sends her an incredulous look. “Shane and I arewhat?”Or, Ryan and Shane's life would be so much easier if they just talked to each other.





	oblivion

In Ryan’s defense, it has been an absolute hell of a day. After a terrible night of sleep, they had to take an early flight to Austin Texas, and when they got there they immediately had to go to the Littlefield house, where they would be filming that day. Although the house was absolutely beautiful, and definitely gave off a haunted vibe, they barely managed to catch any useful footage, despite spending hours roaming the house. Ryan had eventually called it quits at four in the morning, after nearly toppling down a staircase out of sheer exhaustion.

They’re in their hotel room now, him and Shane, huddled together in the small bathroom. Ryan’s feeling disappointed, distracted, and most of all absolutely exhausted. It’s the only excuse he has for why he leans in after brushing his teeth, and promptly kisses Shane on the corner of his mouth.

“Night,” Ryan mutters, nearly tripping over his own feet when he leaves the bathroom to finally, _finally_ , burry himself in the soft covers of his bed. God, he’s going to sleep for _ten years_.

He falls asleep immediately, not realizing that Shane never wished him a good night in return, or that his friend is still standing in the bathroom, slightly confused, hand raised to touch the place Ryan’s lips had been mere seconds ago.

\--

It’s not. It’s not a _thing_. It’s just that maybe, _maybe_ , Ryan has feeling for Shane. A tiny little bit of _romantic_ feelings. But honestly, it’s neglectable, it’s not a big deal. He can ignore it, most of the time. It’s just when he is really, _really_ tired, his body has the tendency to _act_ on these feelings, which is quite honestly the worst.

It happens again a few days after the first incident, which they still haven’t really talked about. Ryan is glad Shane never brought it up after, because he’s not sure what he would’ve said. He’s always been a terrible liar, and he’s pretty sure Shane would’ve seen right through him if he’d tried to claim it meant nothing. He’s not sure what Shane would do if he ever found out about Ryan’s feelings for him. He’s pretty sure he doesn’t want to find out. He’d rather be friends for as long as Shane will have him then fuck it up by getting _feelings_ involved.

It’s starting to get dark outside, and the Buzzfeed office is pretty deserted at this point. It is really only Shane and Ryan left, although Ryan’s not sure why Shane is even still here. Every time he’s looked over at Shane’s screen, he’s been doing anything but working. Right now, he’s scrolling through Facebook, occasionally pausing to watch a video or like a post.

“Okay, that’s it,” Ryan says, when he looks back at his own screen only to realize he’s still staring at the same unfinished outline of the next unsolved episode he’s been staring at for the past fifteen minutes now, without really getting any further. “I’m going home.”

“If you’re stuck on theories I can help you,” Shane says, pausing on one of those ‘tag your friends’ posts and typing something in the comment box. Seconds later, Ryan’s phone beeps. Ryan rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, what you got?” Ryan asks, packing his back, half expecting it when Shane says, “Aliens.”

“Shut up, Shane,” Ryan says, halfheartedly. His mind is mostly on his bed, and how there is only a fifteen minute drive between them now. _So close._

Shane snorts, “What, you’re going to tell me that isn’t one of the theories?”

It is. Ryan isn’t going to give him the satisfaction. “You come up with the theories, then,” he says, instead. Shane just laughs at that, while Ryan puts on his coat. “All right, big guy, I’m out,” Ryan says, and leans down to give Shane a soft kiss on his smiling mouth. “See you tomorrow,” he adds, and then leaves the office.

It doesn’t hit him until he’s all the way home that he’s just kissed Shane _again_.

\--

The next day, they’re hanging out at Ryan’s place. They left the office after work together, Ryan trying to ignore the feeling of Shane’s hand on his lower back as he’d led him out of the office. Now they’re curled up on the couch, Shane’s feet in Ryan’s lap. They’re watching Mamma Mia, although Ryan’s not entirely sure who picked the movie.

“I think I know who the father is,” Shane says thoughtfully.

Ryan hums, “Tell me.”

“Aliens,” Shane deadpans, and Ryan promptly whacks him in the face with a pillow. “Or maybe her father was a ghost. Do you think that is possible? Can you have ghost babies?” Shane continues, seemingly unbothered.

“Shut up, Shane,” Ryan says, and softly tickles underneath one of Shane’s feet. Shane, as expected, jerks his foot out of Ryan’s lap, and gives him a betrayed look.

“It was the ghosts,” Ryan informs him, and that’s apparently all the incentive Shane needs to lurch forward and start tickling Ryan’s sides.

“No, stop, have mercy!” Ryan exclaims, between bouts of laughter. Shane, however, is unrelenting, and continues to dig his fingers into Ryan’s sides. “You’re the worst!” Ryan shouts, just before the two of them loose balance and topple off the couch in a flurry of limbs.

Somehow Ryan ends on his back, Shane right on top of him, keeping him pinned to the ground. Shane leans up on his hands, so he’s hovering over Ryan, their faces only inches apart. “You okay, little guy?” Shane asks.

“Yeah,” Ryan breathes, trying not to get lost in Shane’s eyes. “You?” He stutters out, mostly to distract himself from the feeling of having Shane Madej on top of him.

“Perfect,” Shane informs him, and leans down to press a soft kiss to the tip of Ryan’s nose. Then he gets up, like nothing happened, grabbing the TV remote to rewind the part of the movie they’ve missed. “Hey, do you reckon we could do a musical episode of unsolved?”

“After that stunt you pulled with the Hotdaga song? Absolutely not,” Ryan says, getting up as well, pretending like the tip of his nose isn’t tingling, like his stomach isn’t in knots, like he doesn’t want to slide across the couch right now and kiss Shane again, properly this time.

Instead he sits down, and lets Shane swing his legs in his lap again. On the screen, the entire casts sings about taking a chance. Ryan ignores them, and rests his hand on Shane’s ankle.

\--

It keeps happening. When Shane leaves later that evening, he gives Ryan a kiss on the cheek and wishes him goodnight with sparkling eyes. When they’re in a haunted house a week later, and something spokes Ryan, Shane pulls him close and presses a reassuring kiss to his forehead.

And Ryan, Ryan finds himself craving those kisses, those small shows of affection. It’s ridiculous, because it’s not, they’re not _dating_ , they’re not actually a thing, but at times it truly feels they are. They hang out all the time now, and Shane keeps _kissing him_ , even though truly, Ryan was the one who started it.

He indulges himself sometimes, too. Giving Shane a soft kiss before he leaves the office for the day, on those rare days they don’t hang out after work. Leaning into it when Shane kisses his cheek. Purposely stepping closer to Shane when he gets scared because he knows Shane will pull him close.

It’s horrible, and he knows he’s only setting himself up for heartbreak. Shane probably thinks it’s just an added layer to their friendship, probably doesn’t think anything of it, and eventually Ryan’s going to have to face the fact that that is all they’ll ever be. Just friends.

But for now it’s so easy to let himself dream, to let himself believe he can have this, even though eventually it is all going to be ripped away from him.

\--

The whole charade comes to a screeching halt only a few weeks later, and it’s, once again, all Ryan’s own fault.

They’re in the kitchen together, Shane busying himself with making them coffee while Ryan stands next to him, rambling on about some plans he has for the upcoming season for unsolved, about which movie they could watch tonight, about that new Mexican place around the corner they should really try sometimes.

There’s others in the kitchen, but just like always when it’s just Shane and Ryan, everything else kind of fades away.

So when Shane hands Ryan his coffee, Ryan doesn’t hesitate to mumble a soft “thanks, big guy,” and press a kiss to Shane’s shoulder, who smiles down at him.

“No problem, little man,” Shane says, and saunters out of the kitchen. Ryan watches him leave, but when he turns back to his coffee, Jen is suddenly in front of him, scaring the absolute crap out of him.

“ _Jesus,_ Jen.”

“Just Jen is fine,” she informs him, and then, “So, how long have you and Shane been dating?”

If Ryan had already taken a sip of his coffee, he would’ve done a spit take right now. Instead, he just sends her an incredulous look. “Shane and I are _what_?”

“Dating,” Jen says, cocking her head to the side. “For how long?” Like somehow Yoda-ing the sentence is going to make it have more sense.

“We’re not dating,” Ryan says, because they’re _not_. He’s pretty sure he would know.

“Right,” Jen says, squinting her eyes at him. “Does Shane know that?”

“I am pretty sure he does, yeah,” Ryan says, because, well, Shane would’ve _told him_ if they were dating, right? Besides, it’s not like Shane even likes him that way. “Anyway, I have, like, work to do. Bye Jen!”

He doesn’t have any work to do. Actually, he just finished all his work about half an hour ago. But right now, he needs to not be around Jen questioning his relationship with his best friend and maybe _confront_ said best friend.

“Hey Ryan!” Shane says excitedly when Ryan comes back, and then quirks an eyebrow when he sees Ryan’s frazzled state. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just,” Ryan falls down on his chair with a laugh, “Jen seems to think we are dating.”

Shane frowns at him. “Well, we are, aren’t we?”

“No?” Ryan says, confused, “I mean, I’d know if we were, right?”

“Right. Right, yes, of course, how silly of me,” Shane says, abruptly standing up and starting to haphazardly collecting his stuff. “I, uh, have this thing. This thing that I have to do that is… not here. Bye, Ryan.”

And then he’s gone.

“Shane?” Ryan calls out, confused, but Shane has already disappeared.

“I’m not sure what you did, but I think you fucked up,” Jen says, suddenly appearing at his shoulder.

She doesn’t even scare him this time, he’s too focused on staring at the spot Shane has disappeared in and trying to think of what went wrong, and how he has to fix it. “I. I don’t know what I did, I just, I told him you thought we were dating and then suddenly he goes ‘well we are, right?’  and I’m like ‘no, because I’d know if we were’ and then he suddenly ran off. That’s weird, right?”

“Oh, sweetie,” Jen says, sitting down in the chair Shane has just vacanted. “This seems to be a classic case of miscommunication. It appears that Shane _also_ thought you two were dating. Looks like the only one who didn’t get the memo was you. And now Shane thinks that you don’t _want_ to date him.”

“But I do!” Ryan exclaims, not even caring that he basically just told his biggest secret to Jen. He needs her to understand that it was never his intention to hurt Shane.

“Well, then what’s the problem? Go to him! Talk to him! Fix it!” Jen says.

Ryan nods thoughtfully. “I think I have an idea.”

\--

It’s by far the stupidest plan Ryan has ever had, but he’s apparently been a fucking _idiot_ , and he can’t imagine how Shane must feel, who just assumed they’d been dating all this time only to find out Ryan didn’t think the same and he needs to _fix this_ , and if that means being an idiot then so be it.

So that’s how he ends up outside Shane’s apartment, right underneath where he knows Shane’s window is, with a Bluetooth speaker in his hands. He takes a deep breath, selects a song on his phone, turns up the volume, and hits play.

Almost immediately, Shane’s window swings open, and Shane’s head pops out. “Ryan?!” He yells, and after a pause, “Is that _Ghostbusters_?” He sounds completely flabbergasted.

“Yes!” Ryan yells back. Shane slams the window close again, and Ryan sighs deeply. Oh well, it was worth the try. Maybe it wasn’t the best choice in song after all. Ryan thought it had been funny, but as he turns off the speaker and turns to leave, he thinks it might’ve been a stupid idea after all.

But then a door swings open behind him, and when he turns back, Shane is there, in the doorway, in a pair of sweats and a t-shirt, looking rumpled and soft and positively _beautiful_. Ryan wants to kiss him and kiss him and never stop kissing him.

“Shane,” he says instead. He’d prepared a whole speech, but now that he’s actually here, and Shane is actually in front of him, living and breathing and absolutely gorgeous, he has no idea what he wanted to say.

“Ryan,” Shane says, “You’re here.” He looks so hopeful, that Ryan immediately regains some of his confidence.

“I am. I’m sorry,” he says, taking a step closer to where Shane is standing. “I was a bit of an idiot.”

Shane smiles sheepishly. “I mean, I guess we were both a bit of an idiot. I shouldn’t have assumed we were dating. It’s just that you were kissing me and we were hanging out all the time so I thought-”

Ryan shakes his head. “No, that’s. I don’t mind. That you assumed. It makes sense, really. I want that, actually. I want to date you. I just. I would like to also be aware of the fact that I am dating you.”

“I would like to date you, too,” Shane says, “And you beware of the dating.”

“Good,” Ryan says, grinning. He knew, but hearing Shane say it makes butterflies erupt in his stomach.

“Good,” Shane parrots. “I like your choice of song, by the way. Very romantic.”

“Shut up, Shane,” Ryan says, still beaming, and then strides forward so he can finally kiss Shane properly.

\--

(“This is a date, by the way,” Shane says, three weeks later, when they are seated in a little Italian restaurant just a few blocks from Ryan apartment.

Ryan rolls his eyes. “I know, you idiot. I asked you on this specific date in the first place, and you’ve already informed me of the fact that this is a date three times just on the way here.”

“Just making sure that you know,” Shane says, grinning at him, “Like, are you _sure_ you are aware that this is a date? Are you positive?”

Ryan kicks him in the leg.)

**Author's Note:**

> my special talents include cramming way too many cliches into one fic, basically. folow me on tumblr [here](http://violetevents.tumblr.com) :)


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